Tuesday 6 August 2013

That old (well ancient) black (in terms of undercoat) magic (in terms of spectacle) has got me in its spell...again

On Saturday I went to Claymore with my friend Phil.I enjoyed chatting to old friends and looking about.After the game we went back to his house and set up a game in his newish wargames room. It was Carthaginians v Romans. I was a tad unsure about the game before hand and how much fun it would be. We were using rules I had doubts about- DBM and had not played for ages.................
To cut a long story short it was great fun,totally absorbing and I even lost! Here you see my Romans advancing to meet their opponents.Note the spectacle and variety of troop types.
My Roman veterans holding the road as the Cretan slingers flee.
The Gallic warbands breaking into the Roman lines.The rules work really well at replicating units breaking into a formation and breaking through...
All in all I feel that my enthusiasm for one of my wargaming "first loves" has returned-I began with Airfix ancient Brits v Romans and have gamed ancients ever since. So what's on the horizon-
1) Playtesting for the forthcoming urban skirmish rules - see-http://irregularwars.blogspot.co.uk
which look fun and i am delighted to be involved in
2) To continue to game with Ross's splendid rules with my 40mm chaps as mentioned in my last post but one
3) To finally get down to collecting an opponent for my Imperial Romans- maybe a middle/long term plan,maybe not...
I know many who read this blog are not ancient gamers but I encourage them to at least dip a toe in the water .Who knows you might get hooked.
P.S figures are Phil s as are the splendid figures

6 comments:

  1. A good game, although I am not too keen on element based rules, the main thing is you had fun. I've never been hooked by ancients really but the Wargods of Olympus Spartans are a happy blend of fantasy and movie fun... I must get some.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was indeed fun which is half the battle.In a way I miss removal of casualties but for ancients elements seem to work for me...

      Delete
  2. We fell out with DBx a while ago but Impetus reinvigorated our ancient mojo. If you haven't tried them the Basic version is still free I believe.

    Still can't beat Romans tho!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have played Impetus basic at a local club some time ago.I liked the system very much and found it gave good games.The big elements in 28mm were a bit of a storage nightmare.I'm used to dbm/dba and i become less and less inclined to learn new rules unless they are simple ,accessible and not pages and pages long.Simple rules are the order of the day and lead to some fun games.

      Delete
  3. I'd rather play bg battle DBA than DBM but its the fellow players and opponents that make the real difference. I'm looking forward to seeing what you choose as an enemy for the romans.

    (but I still regard black undercoating as "New Fangled")

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amen re opponents.Big battle dba is indeed a thought...

      Delete